OOPS! Somebody (hawkins410), forgot to post that the spreadsheet was back up last night...it's back up!

That is cool @lbenson2006 ! Hubby and I got in 90 minutes of walking after 30 minutes of exercising during some of the videos early this a.m. Here is a pic of the color we found on one section of the trail. I hate that autumn colors are leaving us.

My bum hurts! I forgot how much sumo squats work your legs! Feeling the burn! Woo!

@motivatedsister hope you took it easy today. You really need to let yourself relax and get better by not pushing too hard.

Kim - awesome pic! So neat you guys went out and enjoyed that before it's all gone.

Alissa - all I can say is....I have no idea! Lol. I just try to get in what I can, when I can. Ideally, I would be getting both an AM and a lunch workout in every week day, but sometimes that just doesn't work out. If I can get the husband motivated to do something with me when I get home, I try but that is hit or miss a lot. There is never enough time in the evening to do what I want to do. So, please don't stress over the numbers and just put in what you think works for you.

Gretchen - yes, they totally get you sore!! I've just got done with a challenge that ended with having to do 250 squats on day 30, so I hear you!!

Lynn - thank goodness they did not. Had I known they might do that, I probably would not have been so close!! No tagging Mission Enforcer this week, but I would probably post in here when you have reached your goal on the challenge just to cover ourselves and help motivate the team. Good luck on staying under goal.

twinmom_112002 wrote: »

So just a question...how are people racking up so many minutes of exercise a day? I feel like I am doing a lot when I am able to log 2 hours.....

If you notice there is a little tab over minutes in the other teams spread sheet when you hover over it it tells you what that person did. I have seen people log 90 min deep cleaning. I know I am "under" logging and am going to try and be better about it. For instance, today I walked to the supermarket and back. It's only three blocks each way but that is technically minutes as I am moving but it's not something I would normally think of logging.

If this helps any...

LOVE the challenges this week and how they reflect our destination! These videos are easier for me to follow than the dance ones, since I have NO rhythm. Those squats are going to kill me, but they really are great exercise. I practiced my first 25 in front of my husband so he could check my form, and he ended up doing them with me. Happy about the eating challenge, too, since that one will be easy for me. (I've been here on maintenance for over 5 years now, so it's totally normal for me to be right at or below calories each day.) I will have no problem meeting that goal. My sickness seems to be fading fast now, so I should be able to get in some good mileage this week! Woo-hoo! Go team!

sabreena86 wrote: »

hi team two , i'm sorry last week i did't do good , on Saturday i finished the 3 challenges , but i forget to enter the 10 points for the first because i was in a bad situation .. My aunt died on Saturday night, i forget everything , sorry for that
i'll try to do better this week

So sorry to hear that, Sabreen. You and your family are in my thoughts. Please do not apologize for feeling like you failed us. I try to stress, life happens and every single individual day we just have to do our best. Sticking with it is proof we are committed and headed in the right direction.

Good morning I am happy to say I was able to stay out of the candy last night and one day under was complete. I also started my sumo squats, only getting 10 done. tonight is gym time and hopefully a walk at lunch time.
@sabreena86 so sorry to hear about your aunt.

@sabreen86 I am sorry about your loss. In no way did you let us down. This challenge while against each other, is a friendly challenge and I think we are all winners as long as we do the best we can at that moment with what we have. I have not so great knees and it has been a long time since I have done any kind of squats. I however, have been getting stronger legs (helps the knees) so I am going to try them, if I get them done then that is great, if I don't I know it isn't because I was being lazy. It was because I could only do what I could do at that moment. Does that make sense?

I did my videos this morning and managed to only sneak a couple of pieces of candy, and was excellent on my calories. (I was expecting to eat more candy, but I really didn't want much.)

@sabreen86 I am sorry for your loss!!

Today is a light day for me. Got my run in this morning 33 minutes! I am giving blood after work.....so no more physical activity for me!!

I often wonder if you burn calories replenishing your blood supply?!? I like to think I do!

Team - in regards to the ever present question of what to log, I think we need to be safe and stay above board even though it may be tempting to start logging more things due to other teams having so many minutes. I actually set my fitness tracker whenever I am going to be logging something for this challenge or for my diary. I count any time I mow the lawn because I actually had my husband buy us a self propelled lawn mower so that I could do that for extra exercise and in an effort to help him out. I try to walk our trashcan out on Sunday just to get exercise. However, I only count this if I am doing it in conjunction with something else I will be tracking because it only takes 3-5 minutes, I think. There was a lot of discussion about this on the Q&A thread and below is some of the snippets from some of the discussion:

Everything outside your normal routine counts, including all forms of exercise, walking your dog or even vigorously gardening or cleaning the house.

Realistically, it doesn't sound like it's being done for exercise, anymore than going to Disneyland would be. How much will you be recording in your log as exercise? If you were in a dead heat for 1st place, what would you gladly accept from from an opposing team member? Claim what you honestly feel is fair, since I'm sure some of it will be strenuous, and out of the ordinary

You're right, but with those two examples I wouldn't count the entire time, and it should be more for "extreme" housework and gardening, not the usual maintenance stuff. It's all very subjective...I would go more with "what are YOU willing to accept from your (west coast) competition" at zero hour.


I am not sure if this has been asked yet, but does vigourous house cleaning count? I wouldn't count my everyday cleaning and such, but I had a day of pretty intense house cleaning, moving furniture and scrubbing floors.

If your day was an unusual occurrence and if you would count it as "exercise" in your MFP diary even if you weren't in any type of challenge, then YES, do count it! Just remember to subtract any down time, such as coffee breaks, texting fun, phone calls, that sort of thing.

Hope this helps in some of the decision making process!!

This week is probably going to be a piece of cake for me, I love doing Sumo Squats or just squats in general. And I have made myself a challenge to get in 10k steps everyday for the month of November so that starts today and I will be walking in place any chance I get during meetings for work.

Sumo Squats: 65 down/75 to go
Exercise: 41 minutes
Videos: Still need to complete
Under Cal Goal Days: 1 down/4 to go

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!!

murdog3t wrote: »

...I totally agree let's keep it above board whatever is out of the ordinary we log just like our captain suggest
Honesty is the best policy. Keep it real...

I agree. I'm proud of the exercise I log. Personally, I don't think I could bring myself to log cheesy stuff like day-to-day chores, walking across the parking lot to my car, or counting up all the times I get up from my desk and walk to the bathroom, or whatever other things people may be logging (that I would call normal activity.) I would only count dedicated, purposeful activity. If I logged everyday activities, I'd feel like I was cheating myself. And if that means that running 7 miles in the hills ends up earning me fewer points than someone shopping for groceries, doing dishes and folding laundry, then I guess that's just the way it is. I'm sure everyone has their own definition of personal fitness, and what's physically challenging to me may not be so to the next person. That's cool. I can live with it. I just hope that everyone is doing their best and doing it with the best of intentions. If this was a life and death competition, I might have a problem with it, but it's not, so I'm just gonna roll with it.

P.S. I think I Sumo squats! My new favorite!

I did well yesterday and I'm proud that I was able to control myself around the Halloween candy. I allowed myself one Almond Joy (my favorite). I went to the gym before work knowing I wouldn't be able to get anything done last night, stayed within my calorie goal yesterday and did several of the radio taiso videos yesterday (I still need to do a couple of them today). The hardest piece for me is this week is staying below my calorie goal but it is the perfect challenge for me as I need/want to do this. I also watched the videos about Kyoto while doing some active stretching before the trick or treaters arrived.

Maybe tonight I'll start the sumo squats...